Search results for "metrics"

Opportunity costs resulting from scramble competition within the choosy sex severely impair mate choosiness.

2016

12 pages; International audience; Studies on mate choice mainly focus on the evolution of signals that would maximize the probability of finding a good-quality partner. Most models of sexual selection rely on the implicit assumption that individuals can freely compare and spot the best mates in a heterogeneous population. Comparatively few studies have investigated the consequences of the mate-sampling process. Several sampling strategies have been studied from theoretical or experimental perspectives. They belong to two families of decision rules: best-of-n strategies (individuals sample n partners before choosing the best one within this pool) or threshold strategies (individuals sequenti…

Experimental approaches for testing if tolerance curves are useful for predicting fitness in fluctuating environments

2017

Most experimental studies on adaptation to stressful environments are performed under conditions that are rather constant and rarely ecologically relevant. Fluctuations in natural environmental conditions are ubiquitous and include for example variation in intensity and duration of temperature, droughts, parasite loads, and availability of nutrients, predators and competitors. The frequency and amplitude of many of these fluctuations are expected to increase with climate change. Tolerance curves are often used to describe fitness components across environmental gradients. Such curves can be obtained by assessing performance in a range of constant environmental conditions. In this perspectiv…

Widespread plant specialization in the polyphagous planthopper Hyalesthes obsoletus (Cixiidae), a major vector of stolbur phytoplasma: Evidence of cr…

2018

The stolbur phytoplasma vector Hyalesthes obsoletus is generally considered as a polyphagous species associated with numerous wild and cultivated plants. However, recent research in southeastern Europe, the distribution centre of H. obsoletus and the area of most stolbur-inflicted crop diseases, points toward specific host-plant associations of the vector, indicating specific vector-based transmission routes. Here, we study the specificity of populations associated with four host-plants using mitochondrial and nuclear genetic markers, and we evaluate the evolution of host-shifts in H. obsoletus. Host-plant use was confirmed for Convolvulus arvensis, Urtica dioica, Vitex agnus-castus and Cre…

Morphometrics and Cladistics: Measuring Phylogeny in the Sea Urchin Echinocardium

1996

A phylogenetic approach to the study of evolutionary patterns is based on taxic homologies (synapomorphies). In contrast, the recognition of evolutionary processes (namely heterochronies) involves analysis of the entire morphology. Recent developments in geometric morphometry permit analysis of morphological similarities grounded in operational homologies. Such morphometric techniques are explored (1) at the level of evolutionary processes, and (2) as a complement in exploration of phylogenetic relationships. To examplify this, we perform a two-part study of the ontogeny and phylogeny of the spatangoid sea urchin Echinocardium. First, a phylogenetic analysis of ten Recent species in the gen…

Maternal effects and the stability of population dynamics in noisy environments

2001

Summary 1. It is widely appreciated that complex population dynamics are more likely in systems where there is a lag in the density dependence. The transmission of maternal environmental conditions to offspring phenotype is a potential cause of such a lag. Maternal effects are increasingly found to be common in a wide range of organisms, and might thus be a frequent cause of nonequilibrium population dynamics. 2. We show that a maternal effects’ lag generally increases population variability. This may result from the lag inducing cycles (or more complex dynamics) in a deterministic environment or, in a stochastic environment, from the lag interacting with environmental noise to produce more…

Synchronicity in population systems: cause and consequence mixed

1999

Effects of predation pressure and resource use on morphological divergence in omnivorous prey fish

2013

Background. Body shape is one of the most variable traits of organisms and responds to a broad array of local selective forces. In freshwater fish, divergent body shapes within single species have been repeatedly observed along the littoral-pelagic axes of lakes, where the structural complexity of near shore habitats provides a more diverse set of resources compared to the open-water zones. It remains poorly understood whether similar resource-driven polymorphism occurs among lakes that vary in structural complexity and predation pressure, and whether this variation is heritable. Here, we analyzed body shape in four populations of omnivorous roach (Rutilus rutilus) inhabiting shallow lakes.…

Différenciation morphologique et génétique des populations de douroucoulis (Aotus infulatus, Primates, Platyrhiniens, Cebidae) provenant des rives dr…

2007

11 pages; La morphologie crânienne de 28 spécimens de douroucoulis (genre Aotus), provenant du Bassin amazonien, a été étudiée à l'aide de méthodes de morphométrie géométrique en trois dimensions. De nouveaux résultats concernant la distinction morphologique de populations de l'espèce Aotus infulatus, réparties de part et d'autre du rio Tocantins, sont proposés. Ces résultats morphologiques concordent avec la distinction génétique de ces populations publiée par Schneider – et Sampaio –, et indiquent probablement de récents et rapides changements évolutifs au sein de cette espèce. Les résultats de cette étude ont une application taxinomique, mais pourraient également ouvrir de nouvelles pers…

Worldwide Scientific Research on Nanotechnology: A Bibliometric Analysis of Tendencies, Funding, and Challenges

2020

[EN] The main objective of this investigation was to analyze the scientific production in global research on nanotechnology, integrating scientific production, funding of studies, collaborations between countries, and the most cited publications. The source for obtaining the research papers for our analysis was the Science Citation Index Expanded from the Web of Science. A total of 3546 documents were extracted during the period of 1997-2018. Food science & technology, chemistry (applied and analytical), spectroscopy, and agriculture appeared as the main areas where the articles were published. Most prolific and cited journals were Analytical Methods, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemis…

Forest Fragmentation and Selective Logging Have Inconsistent Effects on Multiple Animal-Mediated Ecosystem Processes in a Tropical Forest

2011

Forest fragmentation and selective logging are two main drivers of global environmental change and modify biodiversity and environmental conditions in many tropical forests. The consequences of these changes for the functioning of tropical forest ecosystems have rarely been explored in a comprehensive approach. In a Kenyan rainforest, we studied six animal-mediated ecosystem processes and recorded species richness and community composition of all animal taxa involved in these processes. We used linear models and a formal meta-analysis to test whether forest fragmentation and selective logging affected ecosystem processes and biodiversity and used structural equation models to disentangle di…